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Pair murders juvenile, cut genitals

by Staff reporter
01 Jan 2021 at 19:46hrs | Views
In a gory murder case that has left the community in Mazetese Village in Mwenezi shell-shocked, two men allegedly connived to kill a six-year-old girl before burning her body beyond recognition after cutting off her genitals for sale in South Africa.

Taruziva Sithole (37) of Chomutamba Village 3 allegedly connived with his friend Shackmore Dube (26) of the same village to kill Sithole's niece Irene Sithole before torching her corpse beyond recognition on December 29.

Irene's remains including a tooth, badly burnt pieces of the skull and ribs were recovered from where the pair burned her body.

A traders' bag commonly known as Shangaan bag was used by Sithole to carry Irene's corpse from his house where he had brutally killed his niece by pounding her with a log.

Sithole and Dube have since been arrested and appeared in court before Mwenezi Resident magistrate Mr Honest Musiiwa facing murder charges.

The duo were not asked to plead by Mr Musiiwa today (Friday) who remanded them in custody to January 14 and advised them to seek bail at the High Court.

Prosecutor Mr Lyton Katsidzira told the coury that Sithole and Dube connived to kill the former's niece after the later had been promised a vehicle and lots of money for a juvenile girl body parts by an unknown person in South Africa.

Sithole, who was staying with Irene at his house allegedly decided to kill her so that Dube could take her private parts to South Africa.

On 29 December around 8pm Sithole allegedly started attacking Irene with a log and she collapsed and died.

He allegedly took his niece's lifeless body and put it in a bag before using a cloth to remove stains of blood to conceal the vice.

At around midnight on the same day, Sithole took Irene's corpse in the bag and went outside to meet Dube who was waiting for him a few metres from his house.

Dube then allegedly proceeded to cut off Irene's genitals before the pair proceeded to burn her body in a fire until it was burnt to ashes save for some teeth, ribs and parts of the skull that remained.

The matter came to light after Irene went missing and Sithole's wife raised alarm with neighbours that he had seen him pounding his niece with a log.

A report was made to police to Sithole's arrest who then implicated Dube.

The pair led police to where they had burnt Irene's body leading to recovery of pieces of the skull, ribs and teeth.

As of today, (Friday) Irene's mutilated private parts has not yet been recovered.

The gruesome murder of the Mwenezi juvenile comes as the nation is still recovering from the heinous murder of Tapiwa Makore of Murehwa believed to have been masterminded by his uncle for ritual purposes.

Tapiwa's head has not been recovered to date save for his torso and the body is now set to be buried minus the head in one of the intriguinf murders of 2020 that caught the attention and aroused emotions of the entire nation.

Source - the herald